Colette Pichon Battle
Colette Pichon Battle (she/her) is the Vision and Initiatives Partner for Taproot Earth. She spearheaded efforts around equitable climate disaster recovery, global migration, community economic development, and energy democracy through the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, an organization that she founded in 2005.
Colette serves on the governance council of the Southern Movement Assembly, co-chairs the national Water Equity and Climate Resilient Caucus with PolicyLink, serves on the steering committee of the Ocean Justice Forum, and is a lead architect of the 5-state, multi-issue initiative Gulf South for a Green New Deal. She also helped to develop the 13-state Southern Communities for Green New Deal with the Southeast Climate & Energy Network and the Red, Black & Green New Deal, the national climate initiative with the Movement for Black Lives.
In 2022, Colette received the William O. Douglas Award- recognizing individuals who have made outstanding use of the legal/judicial process to achieve environmental goals, particularly those with national significance. Her TED Talk on climate migration was ranked in the top 10 TED talks of 2020. And she was named a 2019 Obama Fellow for her work with Black and Native communities.
Colette chaired the 2021-22 Equity Advisory Group of the Louisiana Governor’s Climate Initiative Task Force, she currently serves on the Kataly Foundation’s Environmental Justice Resourcing Collective as well as sits on the boards of the US Climate Action Network, Center for Constitutional Rights, Highlander Research Education Center, and Healthy Gulf, serves on the steering committee of the Resilience Roadmap Project.
Colette is a generational native of Bayou Liberty, Louisiana.